The vast majority of restaurants (and businesses in general) are closed on Christmas in order to allow their staff to celebrate the holiday, and we're not certain that a restaurant making its employees come into work on such a major holiday is the best decision. Regardless, a surprising number of chain restaurants are open on Christmas, serving full menus and usually some Holiday specials.

We present this list with a couple caveats. One, many restaurants that are open on Christmas are only open for lunch, in order to let their employees go home early. Two, only a handful of chains are open across the board, at every location, on Christmas Day (Red Lobster, for example, will be closing all locations except for the one in Times Square), so before loading the family into the station wagon make sure you call to double-check that your destination will indeed be open. And if you're planning on having your Christmas meal at a higher-end restaurant like Legal Sea Foods or Morton's, we suggest you call to make a reservation as far in advance as possible. Learn which 25 major chain restaurants will be open on Christmas Day here.